A: I’m a big fan of creating a simple canvas to direct the eye towards what is needed on a website, logo, or poster.

As far as styles go, I like the current flat design look but with a few tweaks, like adding subtle shadows and shading to create some depth, which I feel is very important. I’m a huge fan of white space because the content of a website or printed design has to be given the chance to breathe somewhat, and not feel all crammed together. The use of large photos these days is great but the photo must tie back to the overall message or call to action that the designer is trying to convey; otherwise, it creates a visual disconnect with the message.

Two more things: I love the use of custom icons and natural textures for backgrounds. Adding textures to an element or subject that does not normally have textures can be very cool in my opinion.

Q: You’re currently involved with a start-up company, McCaffrey Audio. How did you get involved, and what has it been like to watch the company grow from the ground up?

A: McCaffrey Audio creates and manufactures high-end/boutique guitar pedals, and is based out of Wausau, Wisconsin. Ryan McCaffrey started building guitar pedals about three years ago in his basement as a hobby while he worked his main job as a firefighter.

Back in July of 2014, he came across me on LinkedIn when he was looking for a designer to help with some new guitar pedal layouts. When he saw my name he remembered that he sold me a guitar about 5 years ago through an online guitar forum called The Gear Page. I live about an hour from him so we met halfway, exchanged money and a guitar, and then went about our lives. Every so often we’d say hi because we both played in rock cover bands and were always buying or trying new guitar gear. Anyway, this past summer he noticed that I’m a graphic and web designer so he gave me a call to discuss the new guitar pedal. I was immediately interested at the thought of combining two of my favorite things: guitars and graphics!

By the fall I was firmly entrenched as Ryan’s right-hand man at McCaffrey Audio. We went through a company rebranding in November, as well as redesigning and re-releasing our three flagship pedals. We currently have around twelve guitar pedals in various stages of prototyping, manufacturing, and design—and we hope to release the next one this spring. Along with all things graphic and web-related, I also take on some of our artist endorsement deals, as well as product development. Ryan will come up with a new guitar pedal idea, create and ship the prototype to our testers, who provide feedback on the next prototype. Let me tell you, as a guitar gear junkie this is pure gold, haha! It’s so amazing to create something and see it come to fruition, plugged into a guitar amp and played by some of the biggest guitar names in music, both in live bands and studio session work.

We now have manufacturing set up in three different states with many U.S. and international dealers coming on board. We attended the annual winter NAMM show in Anaheim a few weeks ago and really made an impression on dealers/retailers and new artists.

The experience has been pure exhilaration, going from designing one pedal back in the summer to full production, attending trade shows and really getting the company off the ground. Late last year Ryan went all in on his company so he’s doing it full-time, which is very impressive! He believes in his product and his business plan, and it’s great to see everything happen so fast.

Q: What are some of your other professional and leisure interests? Do you see points of intersection amongst them?

A: My professional interests will probably come as no shock: I love all things graphic/web-related, new design trends, color schemes, and web technologies. Along with that, I’m involved in user interface/user experience, project management and organization—branding and business social media all tie into those things as well.

My love of organizing graphical interfaces and project management has led me to organize the clutter around me when it comes to everyday household items and my travel needs. Of course, this led me to Tom Bihn. I love Tom’s clean and simple but elegant design patterns and thought process, as well as the great color choices and amazing fabrics that are used in his bags and accessories. Everything has its place—the organization in my Synapse 25 is bar none, as well as my Co-Pilot and Western Flyer. I’ve had my Synapse 25 for two years this coming May and I’m still finding new ways to pack it. Feels like a new bag every time. The ability to keep adding on to our Tom Bihn bags is so important to me, whether through the various accessories or the expansive color options and coordination. I’m hoping someday to pick up an Aeronaut 45 for extended travel and longer trips, along with the suite of packing cubes!

Playing guitar is still fun for me, though recently it’s mostly a business thing, haha! I also love baking desserts: everything from cheesecakes to cream puffs, and pies to crepes. The more complicated the better! I love camping and have been doing that my whole life so I’m getting my girlfriend, Julie, into it, which is a lot of fun! Wisconsin is a beautiful state and my TOM BIHN bags love being outdoors. Of course family is a huge part of my life, as well.

Q: Speaking of family, between you and Julie, you have six kids. How do you balance the competing demands of work, your other hobbies, and family?

A: Honestly, it’s truly amazing! We have two sixth graders, a high school freshman, a sophomore, a senior, and a college freshman. Needless to say, we’re pretty busy with their school schedules and extracurricular activities, haha! As far as balance goes, it all comes down to a simple concept for me: passion. Everything that I’ve mentioned above I have a deep passion for so whatever needs focus at any given time gets elevated to my number one thing to work on or help out with. Be it running kids around for their activities, designing a new logo or planning a getaway weekend, passion creates my focus which I find is very instrumental to how I structure my life.

Q: What are your top three must-go travel destinations?

A: The first one is easy as I’ll be going there in early March: Cozumel, Mexico. There’s a big group of us going there for my parents’ 50th anniversary celebration! My parents have been going to Mexico for years so we figured it was time for us to enjoy it with them.

The second destination is a tourist thing: some type of European tour to see the various countries, figure out our likes and dislikes, then go back to our favorite cities and countries at a later date to really immerse ourselves. I have strong family ties to a bunch of European countries so I just need to go there and experience part of my heritage.

Third on my list would be a 2+ week adventure in New Zealand and Australia. That may overtake number two on the list!

I’m adding a fourth and that would be Hawaii. I’ve known many people who’ve spent considerable time there so once again I would love to experience what they love about Hawaii.

HollieCake – “Love You Madly” (My favorite Cake song; I’m actually physically unable to hold still when this starts playing.)
Ingrid Michaelson – “Can’t Help Falling in Love” (My song for my hubby.)
Barenaked Ladies – “Light Up My Room” (My hubby’s song for me.)
Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters – “Tonight You Belong To Me” (First song I—and many others—learned to play well on the ukulele.)
Deb Talan – “The Gladdest Thing” (It’s just a ME kind of song, it’s one of my all-time favorites; the lyrics are adapted from a beautiful Edna St. Vincent Millay poem.)
Indigo Girls – “She’s Saving Me” (Got me through one particularly difficult summer.)
Cosy Sheridan – “Do You Love The Life You Made” (Cosy was my songwriting teacher at guitar camp, I just adore her, and this song is my favorite of hers.)
Paul Simon – “Graceland” (I know and love with a crazy passion—every single word of both the song and the album.)
Celtic Fiddle Festival – “Canyon Moonrise” (This was the first song I learned by ear on the fiddle, and it’s a beautiful piece—it was written by their guitarist, John McGann, for his wife.)
Barry White – “You’re The First, My Last, My Everything” (Because BARRY WHITE.)

Matthew
Kylie Minogue – “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” – Kylie Minogue (So, so sexy.)
Metallica – “Blackened” (The half-time breakdown after the solo is BRUTAL.)
GWAR – “None But the Brave” (The most honest song from a band of intergalactic space monsters. RIP Oderus.)
Kayne West – “Runaway” (The opening piano line makes me cry every time.)
Mastodon – “Hearts Alive” – (Maybe the most triumphant coda riff in metal history.)
AC/DC – “It’s A Long Way to the Top (If Ya Wanna Rock ‘n Roll)” (GETTIN’ TOOK.)
Wu Tang Clan – “Triumph” (9 tight verses, no chorus, rap game efficiency achievement unlocked.)
Radiohead – “Everything In Its Right Place” (The sound of someone’s mind breaking in half.)
Ryan Adams – “Come Pick Me Up” (I’m trying to write something here but I can’t stop sobbing.)
Queens of the Stone Age – “Go With the Flow” (So much swagger in just three chords.)

“The mountains are calling, and I must go.” – John Muir
“For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.” — John Steinbeck
(blackbird)

“A straight line may be the shortest distance between two points, but it is by no means the most interesting” — the Doctor (Dee)

“What do we leave behind when we cross each frontier? Each moment seems split in two: melancholy for what was left behind and the excitement of entering a new land.” — Ernesto Guevara
(Muni_Jedi)

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.”
— St. Augustine
(luvdabags)

This is how I feel about TB bags:
“Form follows function – that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.”
— Frank Lloyd Wright
(Pokilani)

“Houston, Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed.” — Neil Armstrong
The moon landing – a great achievement in travel and design!
(GoStanford)

“Not all those who wander are lost.” — J.R.R. Tolkien
“Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.” — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.” — Hilaire Belloc
“Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.” — Matsuo Basho
“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” — T.S. Eliot
“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.” — Oscar Wilde
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” — Robert Frost
“Every dreamer knows that it is entirely possible to be homesick for a place you’ve never been to, perhaps more homesick than for familiar ground.” — Judith Thurman
“Travel is never a matter of money, but of courage.” — Paulo Coelho
“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” — Antoine de Saint Exupéry
(eWalker)

“Live your life each day as you would climb a mountain. An occasional glance toward the summit keeps the goal in mind, but many beautiful scenes are to be observed from each new vantage point. Climb slowly, steadily, enjoying each passing moment; and the view from the summit will serve as a fitting climax for the journey.” — Harold B. MelchartThis quote greeted our family at an overnight rest stop at Laban Rata on a mammoth climb up Mount Kinabalu, Borneo.
Never have I been so tired ….. with a summit of 4095m, and adverse weather, the climb challenged us all (especially my son who had had spinal surgery 10 months before the climb) ….. but we succeeded and what a journey it was. Nothing is impossible and determination and the making of memories get you a long way.
(djjr)

“For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea”
— From the poem maggie and milly and molly and may by E. E. Cummings
(haraya)

On design: “Keep it simple stupid”
(fernando)

“The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
(bb93fo57)

“People have forgotten this truth,” the fox said. “But you mustn’t forget it. You become responsible forever for what you’ve tamed.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
(backpack)

]]>http://www.tombihn.com/blog/quotes-inspire-illustrations/feed0http://www.tombihn.com/blog/quotes-inspire-illustrationsThe Right Kind of Frictionhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TomBihn-PortableCulture/~3/tLdb9M-UXzo/right-kind-friction
http://www.tombihn.com/blog/right-kind-friction#commentsMon, 16 Feb 2015 16:29:05 +0000http://www.tombihn.com/blog/?p=11295I’ve spent quite a bit of time trying to remove friction from my life. For years, I turned to technology. I read productivity blogs. I bought and endlessly fine-tuned productivity applications. I set hotkeys. I wrote scripts.

Automation helped me tremendously (and still does), but it also hurt me. There is always more to automate, and, in my case, the endless quest to remove friction actually became the friction. It was the worst kind of friction: procrastination disguised as productivity.

The more I automated, the more time I spent shuffling information and tasks around instead of actually creating. It was hard for me to make the jump from planning to producing. For all of its downsides, friction does have a way of jolting the brain into problem-solving mode.

So I decided to focus less on removing friction and more on finding the right kind of friction. I found it by doing something that I had been working hard for years to avoid: putting pen to paper.

When was the last time what you stared at a blank sheet of paper with nothing but a pen in your hand? No Google. No Wikipedia. Just you and the thoughts in your head. For me, it had been years. It was embarrassingly hard at first, but once the ideas started flowing, it felt great. It forced my brain to pull its weight rather than just riding along on the automation and web search train.

Of course, all of those obsessive tendencies I directed at automation had to go somewhere. So now I obsess about pens and paper. I acquire and tinker with fountain pens and put a bit too much thought into what type of paper I’m writing on.

It’s different, though. I don’t pretend it’s productive. It’s a hobby. OK, it’s an obsession, but it’s an obsession that doesn’t compete for my brainpower the way that chasing “productivity” did. I do it in the evenings when I have little brainpower left to direct towards creating. It lets my senses of sight, touch, and smell out to play a bit after a day in front of a computer monitor and keyboard.

The right priorities also inherently fall into line. Pens and paper aren’t very interesting if you aren’t doing something with them. I rarely use them to procrastinate for more than a couple of minutes. Instead, the act of creating–filling that blank page with ink–brings me closer to my next opportunity to try a new fountain pen ink or to finally take that Japanese notebook I’ve been saving off the shelf.

There are many ways to talk yourself out of using pens and paper.

Your handwriting is terrible? Mine was too. You will be surprised how fast it comes back with use. There are also some excellent books to help you get back on track.

You always lose pens and never have one when you need it? Buy yourself a nice pen. And a nice pen isn’t a $900 Mont Blanc. It’s a $15 Pilot Metropolitan. You won’t lose it any more than you lose your wallet, keys, or anything else your mind subconsciously deems valuable.

Pens and paper aren’t the answer for to everything. I would be lost without my electronic calendar perfectly in sync between my devices, and I do still love to tinker with the latest Mac and iOS apps. But if it’s been a while, give writing by hand another try. You may be surprised by how pens and paper can shift your brain into a forgotten gear and give you the break from the connected world that you may not even realize that you need.

Doug Lane is the mastermind behind Modern Stationer, a site dedicated to pens, paper, writing accoutrements of all sorts, and the power of analog tools. Follow him on Twitter, or write him a letter—for real.

]]>http://www.tombihn.com/blog/daydreaminghawaii/feed0http://www.tombihn.com/blog/daydreaminghawaiiOur Bookshelveshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TomBihn-PortableCulture/~3/eAHhkSQC4vA/bookshelves
http://www.tombihn.com/blog/bookshelves#commentsWed, 11 Feb 2015 18:27:50 +0000http://www.tombihn.com/blog/?p=10757We think it’s totally fun checking out other people’s bookshelves: it’s interesting and we learn about books we perhaps otherwise wouldn’t. So, we put a call out to members of our Forum as well as our staff to send us photos of their bookshelves. Here they are!

NWhikergal

blackbird

CeePee, who notes: “My ‘bookshelf,’ which is actually the step between my living room and kitchen. It contains all of my hard-copy books. Whenever possible I will buy ebooks; that way I can fit the majority of my library into most of my Tom Bihn bags.”

mausermama, who notes: “It is an honest photo. No books were changed. Nothing was dusted (I have a severe dislike of dusting, judging from the bookshelves in my home). Nor were the brainier books moved to the front (I really wanted to, believe me!). These are just a teeny tiny sampling of the books I have in my home. As a homeschooling mom of three who loves to read, books just accumulate. Even my Kindle is bowing under the weight of thousands of titles!”

nukediver

Janine

Darcy

Beth C, who notes: “This is a subsection of my books. The truth is that they represent some of my historical reading (i.e., from a few years ago), and the books I chose to keep when I gave away a lot of them in a de-cluttering. Most of my current reading is on the Kindle.”

Mary and I arrived home yesterday from our month’s travel in Italy. It was an incredible trip, from hiking in the Dolomites near the Austrian border to roaming through Venice, Florence, Siena, Cinque Terre, Orvieto, the Po River, and Rome. Our sole pieces of luggage were your Aeronaut bags, and they preformed wonderfully. We looked forward to packing up on our travel days because all our gear fit so snugly into to the bags and transport was a breeze. Comfortable as a day pack on our backs, stowed easily into bins and luggage racks on planes, trains and busses, stood handily at our sides, handles-up, on subways and in lines, and as comfortable backrests when lounging on benches.

We visited my grandfather’s village of Auronzo de Cadore in the Dolomites, an impossibly beautiful valley surrounded by epic peaks. Here’s a pic fresh from the bus at our hotel.

Don’t know what we could do to thank you Tom, but we can start with dinner tomorrow night. Otherwise a rain check will be issued.

Hope the first fall rains are finding you rested and settled in. Snow can’t be far behind.

All best,

–Tim

Tom’s friend Tim is Tim McNulty, poet, essayist, and nature writer. He is the author of ten poetry books and eleven books of natural history. Tim has received the Washington State Book Award and the National Outdoor Book Award among other honors. Tom and Tim serve together on the board of Olympic Park Associates, an organization dedicated to preserving the wilderness and ecological integrity of Olympic National Park.

]]>http://www.tombihn.com/blog/note-toms-friend-tim/feed0http://www.tombihn.com/blog/note-toms-friend-timBooks to Inspire Wanderlusthttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TomBihn-PortableCulture/~3/_pB9BIzmHIY/books-inspire-wanderlust
http://www.tombihn.com/blog/books-inspire-wanderlust#commentsMon, 02 Feb 2015 21:34:41 +0000http://www.tombihn.com/blog/?p=11075During the winter, most of us have carved out time to enjoy life a bit more slowly, spend relaxing hours with friends and family, and perhaps delve into a book. Some of us also get cabin fever and long for an escape to another clime, another place entirely. Maybe we know we need to make the new year the year we go, or perhaps we’re feeling uninspired by everyday life.

The books that follow will hopefully stir your desire to travel, to explore, to get out there—whether “there” is close to home or unimaginably far away. They are all photo books, some recent and some not, designed to be studied and flipped through and perhaps shared with others. They might help you find a new place to visit, or see a familiar place in a new way.

We hope that you’ll check out some of these books, either at the library or at your favorite bookstore, and we hope that you will share your own favorite books—photo books or otherwise—that inspire wanderlust for you.

This is a book ten years in the making. After conducting research and consulting with biologists, artist Rachel Sussman traveled to every continent in the world to photograph living organisms that are 2,000 years old or older—some of which have survived millennia in the harshest of conditions but which are now threatened or the last of their kind. Her portrait-like photos and the engaging essays she’s written to accompany them celebrate the past and demonstrate what we stand to lose in the future. This book is perfect for those who would like to see images of famous yet remote places such as Antarctica, Greenland, and the Australian outback, or have ever wanted to know what a 44,000 year old shrub looks like.

Andy Goldsworthy is a sculptor who uses raw materials given to him by nature to create large-scale outdoor sculptural pieces that are as ephemeral as they are beautiful. Made of leaves, bark, rocks, and even ice and snow, his work temporarily interrupts a natural setting and then lets it return to its former state. The photos in this book capture the fragile purity of his art and remind us to take a moment, whether on our next forest hike or a stroll through the park, to appreciate the innate and fleeting beauty of a landscape.

A native of Seattle, Art Wolfe is well-known as a photographer and conservationist, but his landscape and wildlife photography is so rich with color and explosive with life that not one, but two of his books warrant mention. Travels to the Edge (2009) contains 100 of Wolfe’s favorite images from the series of photos he took while traveling the globe for PBS. The images are perfect representations of tundra, mountaintops, and deserts, as well as the animals and people who live there. Wolfe’s 2014 book, Earth is My Witness, is the largest-ever collection of his photography. Comprised of unpublished images spanning Wolfe’s career, this book depicts life and landscape from every geographic and cultural region. Both books also contain essays and anecdotes that tell the stories behind the pictures.

Many of the books on this list feature unspoiled nature, but this collection of aerial photographs by Emmet Gowin scrutinizes landscapes that have been created, changed, or marred by humans through their technology, architecture, and cultural-political conflicts. This collection of photos focuses on American military test sites, Japanese golf courses, petroleum refineries in the Czech Republic, and other locations around the world. From far above, it is possible to see the extent of humanity’s alterations of the natural world; at the same time, the photographs remind us of humans’ smallness and frailty. Not exactly a feel-good read, but still a thought-provoking and important work.

When we think of remote places, the million square kilometers of Patagonia often come to mind. The southernmost tip of South America, Patagonia is known for its steppes-like plains and the mountainous landscape created by the Andes range. Taking its name from the Patagones, a mythical race of giants said to inhabit the region, Patagonia has long been the subject of fantastic speculation, undoubtedly fueled in part by its resistance to development over the centuries. Argentine photographer Daniel Rivademar captures the landscape, its animals, and its people in Patagonia: Land of Giants, a solid, full-color survey—a perfect introduction to Patagonia and the sweeping expanses that have made it famous.

One of the most iconic American parks, Yosemite is the subject of many a photography book. Though this book by William Neill has been in print for a while, it’s a worthy addition to this list because of Neill’s unique perspective as a long-time resident of the park. Neill presents stunning views and a wide range of climactic and seasonal changes that most of us would not be privileged to witness in person.

While “studies of the British countryside” may seem a bit quaint, there is no denying that this region is crammed with picturesque landscapes just as varied as the range of dialects spoken there. Armed with a large-format plate camera, photographer Harry Cory Wright journeyed from the most northerly reaches of the Shetland Isles to the shores of southern Wales, shooting photos along the way. Taken in different seasons and weather and at various times of day, the images in this book will surely vie for the hearts of Anglophiles or anyone taken by scenes of pastoral beauty.

Rub’ al-Khali, “the Empty Quarter.” It spans 250,000 square miles, has temperatures that can soar to 120°F, and receives less than 1 inch of rain per year, classifying it as a hyper-arid region. The Empty Quarter is the largest sand desert in the world, and was unexplored by outsiders until the early twentieth century. Soaring over the dunes hanging from a motorized paraglider, photographer George Steinmetz has captured breathtaking aerial images of this most inhospitable and unknowable terrain. Without any water sources or vegetation, no one can live permanently in the Rub’ al-Khali, and very few people have ventured there, making these photos a testament of genuine wilderness.

]]>http://www.tombihn.com/blog/books-inspire-wanderlust/feed1http://www.tombihn.com/blog/books-inspire-wanderlustMatt’s Brain Bag’s Battle Scarshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TomBihn-PortableCulture/~3/vGEUkJwnwH8/matts-brain-bags-battle-scars
http://www.tombihn.com/blog/matts-brain-bags-battle-scars#commentsTue, 27 Jan 2015 20:27:21 +0000http://www.tombihn.com/blog/?p=11181My Brain Bag has seen better days but it has had an amazing life—I wanted to share its journey with you.

It all started when I was stationed in Washington while serving with the US Coast Guard. I always traveled light, and wanted a bag for every day as well as short trips. I came across TOM BIHN and thought the Brain Bag was a perfect fit for me, my stuff, and the large laptop I owned at the time.

Since then I have taken my Brain Bag all over the world: New Zealand, Bosnia, the UK, and many places in between. Because I haven’t yet made my fortune, I travel very light and on a very tight budget. I am always able to fit everything in my Brain Bag—actually, that is how I determine what I am bringing: if it doesn’t fit, I don’t need it.

My last trip was an amazing one. I rented scooters and motorcycles all across Europe for 3 weeks. While I was riding through Tuscany I hit a huge hole and went flying off the road, landing on my well packed Brain Bag. I was lucky and wasn’t hurt aside from a few road rashes. The Brain Bag protected me, but in the process all the front compartments were shredded; all my adapters and chargers were all over the place or lost; and one shoulder strap ripped. The amazing thing is that although they looked rough, the two main compartments were fine. With some duct tape I used the bag for a week longer and, actually, I continue to use it. I have been told it looks terrible but I think of the damage from the accident as battle scars and I’m proud of them.

I wanted to share my memories and share the story of the bag as my way of saying thanks.